When All The Leaves Are Gold
by bethemoon
Summary: Just sibling fluff, set near the very end of the Golden Age. G.


**Title**: When All The Leaves Are Gold**  
Fandom**: Narnia (during the Golden Age)**  
Rating**: G**  
Warnings**: None.**  
Disclaimer**: Not mine, obviously, etc. etc.**  
Author's** Notes: The title is from G. K. Chesterton's lovely poem Gold Leaves, specifically the first two and last two lines. 'Lo! I am come to autumn/When all the leaves are gold' and 'But I am come to autumn/When all the leaves are gold.' Like bedlamsbard on LJ, I find myself associating various seasons with various things for Narnia, and autumn is the season I associate with when they leave.

* * *

"Catch me if you can!" Lucy yells, long red-gold hair streaming behind her as she runs barefoot through the grass ahead of her siblings.

Edmund gives chase, but soon gives up.

"Come on, Lu, wait up!" he calls. "We all know you're faster!"

"Lazy bones," Lucy mocks light-heartedly as she drops to the ground in a tangle of gold and red. "Mm, the sun's so warm."

"Watch it, or I won't come next time!" Edmund says in mock annoyance, dropping down to lie next to her, all dark blue and silver in contrast with her.

"I may not be able to," Peter says, collapsing nearby. Susan spreads out the picnic blanket and sits demurely on it.

"That business with the Islands?" she asks.

"Still refusing to pay tribute," Peter scowls, blinking inelegantly at the sun. "Going to have to go knock some sense into them, most likely." He groans and tilts his head to the sun.

"I should be getting a report tonight clarifying what's going on there," Edmund says, sounding drowsy.

"Falling asleep already, Ed?" Lucy says, propping herself up on her elbow to flick his ear.

"Sun's so warm," he mutters. "Ow! Quit that, Lu!"

"Edmund's a lazy bones," she chants, and Edmunds rolls over and tackles her somehow. Lucy shrieks in laughter.

"Ow Ed, stop… stop it! You're tickling me!"

Susan turns her attention from them to Peter soon – he's wincing as he kneads his shoulder where the poisoned arrow hit him last assassination attempt. Lucy's cordial had healed him, but the poison had run deep and was reluctant to leave.

"Still bothering you?" she says quietly. Peter nods, hissing in pain, and she scoots over, pulling his head onto her lap as she massages the shoulder with delicate hands. She's always been good at this, and the naiads taught her some of their tricks a few years after the four siblings had first arrived.

Lucy and Edmund are wrestling now, and Edmund's got the upper hand because Lucy's still (and probably always will be) extremely ticklish.

"You cheater!" Lucy protests as Edmund pins her, and then accepts his hand up.

"I'm hungry," Edmund says. "What all's in the basket?" Peter shoots up.

"Food!" he says happily, and Lucy laughs as she sits down, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Edmund cheated most assiduously, my lord, or he would never have defeated me," she assures him.

"A foul lie," Edmund says around a mouthful of roast beef. "She's merely saying it to garner your good will."

"What, another party?" Peter says in exasperation, and falls back into Susan's lap. "Not again, we just had a ball last week!"

"Oh, but the Galman ambassador will expect it!" Lucy says earnest, rolling over and propping herself up on her elbows. "It really is his due, and I think if we play our cards just right we can have one ball for him and the Archenland ambassadors. Don't you, Susan?"

"It will take a bit of maneuvering, but I doubt either of them will take offence if we work it well," Susan concedes.

"See?" Lucy says. "And this will just be one ball instead of two, so cheer up."

"I hate court occasions," Peter moans. "Ed, make me a sandwich? If the girls get their way with this-"

"And they will, of course," Edmund mutters.

"-I'm going to need all my strength," Peter continues serenely, as if Ed hadn't interrupted.

"Make it yourself," Edmund says with a laugh, and Peter cuffs him on the head as he reaches for the basket.

"Oh, and Tumnus says that the White Stag's been spotted!" Lucy says with a laugh. "We should have a go sometime!"

"What would I possibly wish for?" Peter says.

"The Islands to be reasonable," Susan says wryly.

A shriek of golden laughter from Lucy, Susan's rich dark laughter underpinning it, and then Edmund and Peter join in.


End file.
